A Loan That’s Not a Loan

In all the furor over the Pirates’ leaked financial records, one aspect that’s enraged some Pirate fans yet received little attention outside Pittsburgh was the loan by the Nutting family to the Pirates. The transaction wasn’t actually a loan, not in any conventional sense at least. It was really a loan with an option to convert to equity, but it’s easiest to call it a loan. Whatever the best name for the transaction may be, however, it was not the scam that some fans seem to think.

One thing to get out of the way first: This was not a case of the Nuttings borrowing money from themselves. At the time, they didn’t control the Pirates. They didn’t own a majority of the partnership shares, they didn’t control the board, and Kevin McClatchy was the CEO. According to the leaked 2008 f...

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Wilbur Miller joined the site in July 2010. He has long been known for his excellent Player Profiles, which he brought to the site in February 2011, combining them with the existing Pirates Prospects Player Pages. Wilbur maintains the player pages section of the site, and provides regular articles to the main portion of the site, including a weekly Prospects Trend piece, featuring the best and worst prospects from the previous week.